How widespread is human trafficking in Mississippi?

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – WLBT is following up on some comments made by Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade at a crime scene.

[READ: One of two missing Louisiana girls found dead in Jackson after mother ‘brutally slain’; suspect arrested]

He mentioned that they are bringing in human trafficking investigators based at the location. This is not confirmed in this case. But that raises questions about how common it is.

What is human trafficking? Ashlee Lucas, human trafficking coordinator for the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, said…

“The act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining a person for forced or coerced labor and you have evidence to prove that there was force, fraud or coercion,” a said Ashlee Lucas, MBI human trafficking coordinator. “However, if it is a minor under the age of 18, you do not have to prove these elements.”

And it happens more than you think.

“We opened 192 investigations in 2023 and that only with our unit of five agents,” Lucas emphasized. “And that also involves working with local law enforcement.” So some of them were local cases that we were just helping with and federal cases that we were helping with. We had 227 casualties reported.

The Center for Violence Prevention is responding to these victims across the state with ten rapid response advocates. Executive director Sandy Middleton says she knows no boundaries.

“Unfortunately, this crime is everywhere,” Middleton said. “It’s in the smaller communities. It's in the largest metropolitan area. Don't be under any illusions: this is only in major interstate areas. I mean, it's something that people have a huge misunderstanding about.

If there's any good news, it's that the state has made it a priority to train more people not only on how to recognize trafficking, but also on what to do once it's discovered.

“I am grateful that we now have more than 500 investigators certified as human trafficking investigators through our Human Trafficking Task Force,” Middleton said.

They say there is a worrying trend in how young people become involved in trafficking.

“Typically what we see, you know, is that these traffickers come into these girls' lives, usually through social media,” Middleton added. “And then they groom them and shape them and make them believe that they love them and care about them. And then they exploit them.

This is why MBI says it is imperative to educate your child about the dangers online.

“We're not going to stop because of this,” Lucas described. “We need to start preventing it.”

We're told it can take months to thoroughly investigate these crimes and determine that it's trafficking, and then build a case.

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